A project by Moonee Valley City Council and Wingate Avenue Community Centre has won the top Premier’s Recognition Award in the Premier’s Sustainability Awards 2013 for introducing recycling to a community housing estate. The Ascot Vale Housing Estate Household Recycling project defied previous failed attempts to introduce recycling and established a successful, ground-breaking model using targeted and broad-ranging community engagement of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) and lower Socio Economic Status (SES) groups.

The project won the Community category of the awards and then went on to win the night’s overall award. […]

Sustainability Victoria CEO, Stan Krpan, congratulated the Moonee Valley City Council and Wingate Avenue Community Centre project team for their innovative work which delivered recycling to estate’s residents, of whom 55 per cent were born overseas. “A key initiative of this project was the focus on engaging residents from many cultural backgrounds with varying competency in English, in the importance of recycling,” he said. In its first six months, 52 tonnes of recyclables were recovered. Three of the 11 residents who worked on the project secured jobs as a result of their experience.

Now in their eleventh year, the Premier’s Sustainability Awards celebrate efficient use of water, resources and energy, better waste management and recycling practices, the enhancement of the environment and effective, practical community action. The full list of winners of the Premier’s Sustainability Awards 2013 are:

• The Premier’s Recognition Award – Moonee Valley City Council and Wingate Avenue Community Centre, taking recycling to public housing residents • The Premier’s Regional Recognition Award – Victoria Carpets, for their work in energy and emissions reduction in their Bendigo plant • Innovative Products or Services Award – ModWood Technologies for development of Flame Shield®, a wood-plastic composite for building in bushfire areas • Infrastructure and Buildings Award – RMIT University for their Swanston Academic Building: a progressive tertiary learning environment • Environmental Protection Award – Mallee Catchment Management Authority’s project: Restoring the balance in the drought-riven Hattah Lakes • Education Award – Bentleigh Secondary College – a world recognised, very sustainable school • Small and Medium Enterprises Award – Rae-Line for embedding sustainability practices in manufacturing soft trim components for trucks • Large Business Award – Victoria Carpets • Community Award – Moonee Valley City Council and Wingate Avenue Community Centre.

The innocuous seeming arrows and lines in organisational charts and process diagrams often represent time, context, and connections that are essential to the experiences people have with those organisations. The problem is that arrows and connecting lines are so ubiquitous in diagrams that they seem invisible and are often overlooked.

It is much easier–and human nature—to focus effort on “things” because they represent tangible touchpoints, such as a website, ticket machine, and so on. As a result, many forget to attend to designing the experience of the arrows and lines—the transitions from one touchpoint to the next. They are too important to let just happen. Too important they are.

This talk with Dr. Andy Polaine and discussion explores how thinking about and designing the space and time between touchpoints can help bridge the silos within organisations that prevent engaging and positive service experiences from happening.

Dr. Andy Polaine has been involved in interaction design since the early 90s and was co-founder of the award-winning new media group, Antirom, in London. He was a creative producer at Razorfish, UK and later Interactive Director at Animal Logic, Sydney. Andy was Senior Lecturer and Head of the School of Media Arts at The University of New South Wales, Sydney before moving to Germany and holds a PhD from the University of Technology, Sydney in which he examined the relationship between play and interactivity. He now divides his time between being a Lecturer and Researcher in Service Design at the Lucerne School of Art and Design in Switzerland and his work as a service/interaction design consultant and writer, working with clients such as Telenor, VW Germany and live|work. He has written over 160 articles and papers and co-authored the Rosenfeld Media book, Service Design: From Insight to Implementation. He can be found online at polaine.com and on Twitter as @apolaine.

From ‘Be part of it’ buy SIXAUS: The Changemakers Festival [presented by TACSI] is a celebration of the great work happening in our community, an exploration of the ideas, techniques and technologies that are driving this change, and an invitation for everyone to get involved in creating a better future for their community and our nation. It kicks off in November and works as a ‘distributed festival’, which means that hundreds of Australia’s leading thinkers and organisations will be holding events across every state and territory. There’ll be conferences, meetups, startup weekends, webinars, workshops, and plenty more.

Over the last 10 years, Australia has exploded as a hub of social change. Driven by technology, and inspired by local and international success stories, the social innovation community is starting to tackle some of our toughest social challenges and answer some of our biggest questions. What is the good life? What is Australia’s place in our region and the world? How can we respond to climate change, to refugees, to the changing nature of employment and family? The Changemakers Festival brings these ideas out in the open and encourages strong discussion, cross-sector collaboration, and concrete action to drive social change.

In due course we’ll be sharing the full program with you, but the important question for now is, why not organise and host an event yourself? The Changemakers Festival is a chance to bring people together, to create community, share knowledge, foster collaboration and inspire imagination. If you have an idea for something for your community we’d love to hear it!

And if youneed to raise some funds to make your idea a reality you’ll be interested in the Changemakers Festival Crowdfunding Challenge on StartSomeGood, which is offering over $5,000 in bonus funds to those running crowdfunding campaigns to fuel Changemakers Festival events. But if you want to take advantage of this opportunity you need to be quick! You’ll need to submit your idea by this Friday and be ready to launch your campaign by August 21 to be part of it. You’ll have help from us and from the StartSomeGood team to make it happen though! (More about the challenge here: http://bit.ly/CMFchallenge)

>>>> The Change makers festival kicks off on the 1st – 10th November 2013 >>>> TACSI and SIXAUS who are they?

FRESH, good and fair food needs a fresh, new and innovative event to demonstrate its value to all Australians. That’s why the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance are bringing together communities, social entrepreneurs, creative individuals, smart food businesses and even local government across Australia to celebrate the work of Australia’s fair food pioneers – the women and men doing the vital work of creating a fairer food system for all of us.

“It’s a new national event, Fair Food Week”, said Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance spokesman, Nick Rose. Across the country during Fair Food Week there’s a wonderful diversity of events that will attract, intrigue and entertain you: food forums, food workshops, food films, farmers’ fairs, food swaps, community garden and farm tours.

“What we call ’fair food’ is food that is produced in ways that are fair to all and that guarantee nutritional health to everyone in Australia’s food supply chain – Australian farmers, Australian food processors, small to medium size food retailers and, most importantly, we who eat the products of these enterprises”, explained Mr Rose. “Fair food that the farmer has been paid properly for and that is sold through a retail system that is not dominated by the supermarket duopoly that controls 80 percent of Australia’s grocery sales, but that is sold through a truly free market that includes thriving small to medium food businesses to give us – Australia’s eaters – authentic true choice in what we buy and where we but it. It’s good, healthy and tasty food that all Australians have access to irrespective of their income and where they live. This includes Australians living with disability, illness, those living on a government allowance, such as pensioners, and those in remote indigenous communities… the more then five percent of our people who presently live with an insecure and unhealthy food supply”.

Fair Food Week will highlight the fresh, innovative ideas found in the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance’s Peoples’ Food Plan, Australia’s first crowdsourced policy directions document and the result of democratic, consultative forums held across the country.

The City of Melbourne is growing quickly. By 2031, it is estimated that an additional 42,000 homes will be built within the municipality to house an additional 80,000 people. Our aspiration is for an inner and central city where housing is affordable, well-designed and meets the diverse needs of our residents. Our housing will play a critical role in realising our urban renewal areas as sustainable, liveable and welcoming places for future living.

Future Living opens a discussion on the role of the City of Melbourne and other key influencers, including the Australian and Victorian Governments, developers, investors and residents in meeting these goals.

On the first Sunday of every month at the Brunswick Neighbourhood House, De Carle St, Open Table welcomes friends, families, neighbours and anyone up for a free Sunday feast, and Sunday June 2nd was the first official event. The night was a great success, with around 60 people contributing to the great atmosphere of the evening. Families, elderly locals, residents from nearby community housing, people from community organisations, and other interested locals mingled, sharing food prepared by Open Table’s chef from donations from food rescue organisations and local gardeners. Event collaborator Georgia Hutchison says that “everyone was beaming”.

The next event will be held on July 7, and the organisers will be continuing to develop connections with local community organisations in the month until then, ensuring the invitation to come and share in a Sunday feast is spread as widely as possible. The organisers are also planning a special feast during Fair Food Week to coincide with the launch of the People’s Food Plan.

Australians discard $8 billion of edible food every year in our homes, this is roughly 350kg of food per year in the bin (Source: NSW EPA, 2012). Sadly, this does not even take into account edible food wasted in production, distribution and point of sale. Food that goes to landfill doesn’t biodegrade like it does in your compost – as it rots it releases methane and other greenhouse gases.

Open Table is a not-for-profit food redistribution and community connectedness project. They hold monthly Sunday dinners at the Brunswick Neighbourhood house, using excess food that would otherwise go to waste. The dinners are inclusive, accessible and free. This project addresses the need for greater community connectedness and participation, as well as providing for the material needs of more disadvantaged members of the community. Open Table seeks to bring together disparate groups within Brunswick to greater links and understanding.

Open Table is based on collaboration within: our working group, the Brunswick community, local businesses and supporting organisations. Through the generosity of the Brunswick Neighbourhood house they have a permanent home for the monthly dinners. With support and guidance from Moreland City Council they are able to use the community kitchen to cook delicious vegetarian meals.

Individuals, businesses, community or government groups who have shown commitment to sustainability are encouraged to enter the Premier’s Sustainability Awards as positive role models for all Victorians. Now in their 11th year, the Premier’s Sustainability Awards celebrate efficient use of water, resources and energy, better waste management and recycling practices, the enhancement of the environment and effective, practical community action. The winner of last year’s Premier’s Sustainability Awards, Brightgreen, is urging Victorians who have developed a sustainable product or service to enter this year’s awards program, saying “it is a real thrill to be recognised on a state level… We entered the awards last year because they celebrate sustainable innovation – the whole driving force behind Brightgreen. We’re on a mission not just to make the most efficient or the brightest light but to actually change the way people think about lighting – encouraging them to see it as investment rather than something that’s disposable,” said Brightgreen Co-founder and CEO, David O’Driscoll. “The Premier’s Sustainability Awards align perfectly with everything that we set out to achieve.”

CEO of Sustainability Victoria, Stan Krpan, said that the awards are a great way to recognise and celebrate leadership in sustainability. This year the awards provide even more opportunities for recognition. Entries are open in eight categories: Infrastructure and Buildings, Tourism, Environmental Protection, Education, Innovative Product and Services, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), Large Business, and Community.

How can suburbs get creative and engaging? Talking about the role engagement plays in spatial justice, Alvaro Maz will be exploring ways cities can use -cool- marketing examples to design and interact with our parks, buildings and streets.

We will examine the way we engage with the urban form of our cities and imagine the potential of having an inclusive, sustainable and creative places to live.

Alvaro is a former international development devotee interested in spreading ideas, examining and connecting places and people and feeding his new chocolate addiction; an urban thinker exploring new media with a beer and cheese appetite and passion for informal, vibrant communities. He lives, eats and blogs from Melbourne. Alvaro is also the founder of Creative Suburbs, a community consultation platform to share and support ideas to enhance Melbourne’s suburbs.

David Robinson is the Project Manager of Locals Into Victoria’s Environment (LIVE) Community Power. He is planning Australia’s first community solar project to install up to 3000 solar panels on the roof of South Melbourne Market, adding to about 150 already in place.

In March 2013, the South Melbourne Market solar project passed an important milestone. The feasibility report commissioned by the City of Port Phillip and LIVE was released. David will present on the funding model process and an update on the project.

David’s 40 year career was spent in Information Technology in a range of technical, marketing, communications and sales roles. He is well known for his environmental campaigning, mainly through LIVE (Locals Into Victoria’s Environment) the group of which he is now the Convenor. During 2013 David is focussing on CORE (Community Owned Renewable Energy) projects. LIVE Community Power is the first of these projects, and he expects many more to follow in the years ahead.

Tune into the live webcast. Join the discussion and find out how you can help.